I'll be surprised if AOTC 3D is released and there's not a Republic gunship reissue at least.

Yeah - AotC 3D would be the perfect reason to re-release the Gunship AND the AT-TE if they really felt they needed a BIG vehicle out there. No need to waste the tooling dollars on somehting new, better to re-issue those two and build up a BMF cash base to tool up something new from the OT.

Hopefully they do a better job at the 3D conversion then they did for TPM. 95% of the TPM was not in 3D.

I'm very dubious about 3D conversion technology. If it ain't shot in 3D, it shouldn't be shown in 3D. However, I was very impressed with the 3D Lawrence of Arabia footage in Prometheus, so I'm holding out hope that it's getting better all the time, especially by ANH.

I skipped the AT-TE in favor of the Falcon back in 08, so I definitely would buy a rerelease. I'm happy with my lone Gunship, the "shark" one from the 2D Clone Wars cartoon. That one was like $50 back in 2006, I shudder to think of how much a repaint would cost now. Didn't they rerelease one a few years back and charge like $75?

The only AOTC BMF I'd want (other than a dirty/damaged AT-TE) would be a NEW Republic Gunship. There were "rumors" (guesses?) that was happening IIRC... tough to recall who threw what at a dartboard anymore.

I've hoped for a while they'd redo it though as I do love the Gunship design, but I really wanted a to-scale one, even moreso since they made those big turrets and they look so comically bad on the smaller-scale Gunship.

I think people assumed because it had been reissued so much, they surely would resculpt it (as they often like to do). I just was hopeful that would happen, but seems to be out the window unless it was a smokescreen at SDCC.

I believe Hasbro's last reference to the Gunship was in a Q&A where they sounded pretty optimistic about getting another one out, although at the time I think the speculation was that it would be a TCW item with Geonosian deco. No doubt they will have backed off that now, but I can see it coming in the vintage line at some point, sure.

I don't think they've ever really lost money on those things, they all seem to hold value pretty well in the secondary market too.

I agree with Jesse, the only "new" BMF item from AOTC that I'd really like to see would be a larger Gunship as well, but at the same time I could see them just re-releasing the AT-TE, the Slave I, or the original Gunship (which itself is a pretty nice toy, even if underscaled). Like Jeff said, I'd rather they save the tooling bucks for a big OT item in the future. I've even seen a few rumors that next year may see the release of both AOTC 3D (in Feb) and ROTS 3D (in the Fall), so maybe we'll see a bit of a duo focus for the line next year if that comes to pass.

The thing I like least about the old gunship is that dropping troop platform. I only have a the used space doors version...without a canopy (parts like that rarely come up on ebay). Besides the doors, they added some flip out missile pods to the top cannons, but still kept that detaching floor.

From a realistic standpoint or a toy standpoint? I can bull**** the former for you all day Lando.

Of course!

Well, I can think of a few cons for the realistic standpoint...

1. Structural weakness2. Impractical...There are doors a few feet away3. Once it's down, how is it reattached?

I can understand bottom-opening doors, but the floor falling out as a solid piece seems like a bad move.

I can come up with half a dozen reasons why you'd have a floor exit just on the fly. Might make for easier cargo or vehicle loading, especially if the platform has repulsors. Maybe grappling lines are safer or more efficient running striaght out from the bottom. If you're carrying speeders, you could unload those in motion with a floor release, rather than having to stop and let it out the side. Maybe it's an emergency release - why do school busses have a back door if no one uses it? I think you'd need a better coupling, but maybe you can use these for space docking, possibly even between two gunships bottom to bottom. Maybe there is added machinery/grapplers that come out of the bottom to haul large containers or other vehicles. Is it safer for the clones to jump out the bottom than the sides if they are sky/space jumping? Clearly opening doors would make more sense if it is a frequently used entrance/exit, but that's less critical if it is an emergency door.

The main purpose I could see for a "pop out floor" from the rear is rapid deployment of cargo in the back... the Gunship would be more than a troop transport I think. Versatility woudl be very important... Specializing the vehicle would limit its usefulness. This could be said for many SW vehicle designs... AT-AT's might have a variety of "fits" for their belly holds for instance, for carrying more than just soldiers into war.

It's the same argument that could made for the AT-AT having multiple means of deploying what is in its belly... A zip-line-only method of deploying soldiers limits that vehicle's abilities on the field, but I digress.

With the Gunship, I would see the ability to drop the entire floor out of the back as sort of a rapid deployment of equipment, more than men... A gunship hits the ground, or even just comes in low and drops the floor... Perhaps it's designed to slide a bit and the ship wouldn't even have to stop. Tied to it are cargo containers of medical supplies, munitions, food, etc.

Sort of akin to rapid deployment of cargo out the back of airplanes today... fly in low, and shove it out the back with small chutes to slow it down as it slides across the ground. There's everything from tanks to bundled cargo could be delivered that way.

I think that's the most plausible reason though... speed. It makes an interesting play feature on the toy though... That was one vehicle I think Hasbro got pretty right from top to bottom, as toys go. My only beef has always been its size... I'd like a new, larger one, for that reason. Including a lot of the same features would be cool too, like the deploying side doors, and the ability to lock the to-scale gun turrets on the sides. I'd dig both.